Gay Air Force veteran sues to earn honorable discharge 68 years after getting kicked out

"Mr. Spires does not want to pass knowing that he will not be honored with a military burial," a complaint says.

A United States Air Force veteran who is nearing death wants to defeat the "undesirable" discharge he received nearly 70 years ago — for being gay.

Hubert Edward Spires, 91, filed a federal lawsuit last week asking for an honorable discharge after the Air Force kicked him out and refused his applications for an upgrade.

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Spires, a Connecticut resident, is facing failing health and nearly died weeks ago from pneumonia, according to court papers. He wants to make sure he will be buried with military honors.

"Mr. Spires does not want to pass knowing he that he will not be honored with a military burial and that the Air Force still refuses to acknowledge the sacrifices he made to serve his country with honor," a complaint filed Friday says.

According to the complaint, Spires enlisted in the Air Force in 1946, when he was 20. Within two years, he rose through the ranks from private to sergeant. While stationed in Texas, he heard rumors that a base commander called a meeting with aides to plan "cleaning up the base of homosexuals."

In 1947, Spires wore a Halloween costume that someone at a party mistook for him dressing in drag. Soon afterward, a master sergeant called Spires into a meeting and asked if he was a homosexual. When Spires hesitated to answer, the master sergeant threatened to throw him in a stockade and tell other prisoners Spires is gay.

Spires then endured a "horrific and unbearable" interrogation for an hour, with the master sergeant confiscating his address book and grilling him on his relationship to the people in it, the complaint says.

The master sergeant finally offered Spires an out if he signed a statement saying he had participated in homosexual acts. Spires complied.

After that meeting, other soldiers harassed Spires and threatened to attack him. He was forced to meet with a psychiatrist, who asked Spires if he "ever had (his) d--- sucked," the complaint says. Spired said he had.

Hubert Edward Spires (left) with his husband David Rosenburg, a fellow veteran. (WVIT)

In March 1948, the Air Force gave Spires an undesirable discharge for reason of homosexuality, and sent him home in civilian clothing.

For most of his life, Spires kept quiet about his military service, for fear that people would learn why it ended. He destroyed all of his military records, worked in retail and theater and eventually found a husband — David Rosenberg, a fellow veteran. Rosenberg also faced a grilling in the Army about his sexuality, but he denied being gay, and left with an honorable discharge.

After the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell — which prevented openly gay military members from serving — Spires applied in 2014 to have his discharge upgraded to honorable. But the Air Force rejected it, saying Spires' files had been destroyed in a fire, the complaint says.

The suit asks for the Air Force to upgrade Spires' status — and to make that decision within the next two weeks.

"The idea that this man of faith who served dutifully as a chaplain's assistant in the armed forces, who built a life and a career that has brought joy to those around him, would leave this earth considered undesirable in the eyes of his country, it's unthinkable," Rosenberg, Spires' husband, said in a Friday press conference about the suit. Spires was at the conference, but never spoke.

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The Department of Defense has declined to comment on the suit, citing privacy policies for pending litigation.